Superhero Life in Missouri

 By Skylar Thompson, age 12

FINALIST (ages 9-13) Winter/Spring Writing Contest 2024

Amelia held her breath, her whole anxious body shook with fear as the car pulled into her new middle school parking lot. Her old middle school was in Billings, Montana, and this school was in Springfield, Missouri. No one here knew her and Amelia knew no one here at Springfield Christian Middle School.

Amelia had a big secret that the people knew at her old elementary school, but they had all kept it a secret. Amelia did not trust anyone here yet. She hoped that no one would figure out about her super power to teleport inanimate objects.

Mom turned around and gave Amelia an encouraging smile. “We have arrived!”

Amelia gave Mom a little fake smile and opened the car door. She stepped out into the gloomy parking lot and let out a quick prayer. Amelia started heading to the middle school building's door. She slid the door open, it let out a moaning creak and it closed loudly behind her. It was 9:30 AM. School was supposed to start at 9:00 AM!

Amelia hurried to her classroom, It was classroom H.

There were 26 rooms, but only 21 of them were classrooms. Rooms V - Z were the Cafeteria, the Principal's Office, the Boy’s and Girl’s Bathrooms and the gym. Each grade got 7 classrooms.  Amelia’s Teacher was Miss Landelmaid, and she would have 18 classmates.

Amelia paused at room H and opened the door. It creaked open slowly and Amelia stepped in the door. She felt her face turn red when the whole class looked up from what they were doing to look at her. A girl with blond pigtails stuck out her tongue rudely and some boys in the front snickered.

Amelia felt her cheeks turn on fire!

The young lady in the front of the room looked up from her papers and smiled. Amelia felt her cheeks cool down.

The lady in the front of the room stood up and said, “I'm Miss Landelmaid, welcome.” She paused, “Who are you?”

“I am Amelia, Amelia Allington.” Amelia answered.

 “Amelia, you will sit next to Lilly Peterson,” Miss Landelmaid stated. She pointed to the girl with the blond pigtails.

Amelia’s heart skipped a beat. Amelia was about to start heading to the back of the room, when Lilly jumped up from her seat with anger in her eyes. “I will not sit next to missus late-to-school!” she screeched.

Amelia felt her cheeks start burning again.

Miss Landelmaid gave Lilly a glare and Lilly sat down in her seat but the anger did not leave her eyes. Amelia regained her courage and walked to the back of the room and sat down in her seat next to the mean girl. She felt scared and worried.

After two and a half hours, Amelia stumbled into the Cafeteria. She plopped down at an empty lunch table. Lilly and a group of 4 other girls from the classroom walked by and they were giggling. “That rude teacher will never tell me no again!” Lilly mocked. The other girls giggled and walked away.

Amelia froze and her mouth dropped open. She hurried to her classroom and slipped into her seat. She saw Lilly pass Miss Landelmaid desk and drop something on her chair. Lilly walked over to one of her friends and they started whispering and giggling.        

Miss Landelmaid walked into the room with a big smile on her face and started heading for her desk.  Amelia tried to see what was on the teacher’s chair.  Her mind froze. She saw a tack! Amelia knew she had to do something. 

Amelia raised her hands and fists and opened them fast as lightning. The tack disappeared off the teacher’s seat and onto Lilly’s seat. 

Lilly strutted to her seat and dropped down.  She screeched and jumped out of her seat. “What’s this tack doing on my seat? It was supposed to be on Miss Landalmai—”  Lilly stopped and looked at the floor. 

Miss Landelmaid shook her head.  A frown appeared on her face.  “Lilly, if this happens again, you will go to the principal's office.” 

Lilly nodded and picked the tack off her seat and placed it on her desk.  She plopped down in her seat and buried her head in her arms.  Amelia felt bad for Lilly.

Miss Landelmaid sat down and began digging through her books. She picked up one that did not look like a school book. She began flipping through the pages. “Here it is,” Miss Landelmaid said with a smile, “We will be going through the Bible this year. We will start in Matthew and read a chapter each day.”  

After five minutes, Lilly piped up, “I thought this was a special book– not a book of names!” 

“It is a list of Jesus' ancestors but only the first chapter is a list of names,” Miss Landelmaid stated.” Why are you going to a Christian middle school if you don't know what the Bible is?” said the girl with a bun.

“My parents are.” Lilly answered.

When everyone finished reading the Bible, it was time for math and science.

At 3:00 PM, Amelia stumbled out of the middle school building. She looked at herself in the window. Her long, red hair braided into two pigtail braids. Her darkish skin shined in the sun. She ran over to her mom’s van that had just pulled into the parking lot. 

At the dinner table, she did not feel like eating. 

Amelia’s mom looked up from what she was eating.  “What’s the matter, Mea?”

“Nothing,” Amelia stated. 

 “What’s the matter, Supergirl?” Dad asked. 

“Nothing,” answered Amelia.

“I remember when you were a little girl, only two years old,” Dad stated. 

Amelia sighed.  She had heard these stories at least 100 times. 

“Me and your mom would take away the remote from you and tell you, no TV but you could teleport it from our hand and turn on the TV!” Dad exclaimed. 

Mom and dad started laughing. “Or the time we put you in your crib and an hour later, we came to check on you and you were asleep with ¼ of a container of what used to be a full container of cheese balls and there was cheese powder everywhere,” Mom mentioned. Mom and dad began laughing again. 

Amelia sneaked away from the table and up the stairs to her room, while her mom and dad kept spinning tales about her childhood.  Amelia plopped into her bed and hoped she would make some friends at school soon. 

One week later, Amelia walked into the cafeteria.  She walked over to her usual table.  She plopped down and opened her lunch box with a creak. Amelia’s  hair was pulled back into a ponytail. A quick yank on her hair made Amelia look back and she saw Lilly and four other girls who were Lilly’s posse.

“Is there room next to you “late-y "?"  Lilly  mocked.  Her posse giggled at Lilly's joke. 

Amelia had only been late the first day but everyone but the teachers called her “late-y.”

“We’ll just sit right here.” Lilly’s posse sat down on the other side of the table with Lilly in the middle of them. “Hey late-y, got something good for a late lunch?” Lilly taunted.  Her posse giggled.

“Just a sandwich,” Amelia stated.

 “Why don’t  you show it to me?” Lilly teased.

 “Fine,” Amelia stated.  She picked up her sandwich and held it up but it disappeared. “Oh no,” thought Amelia.  “I teleported the sandwich.”

 “Where did your sandwich go?” Lilly asked.

 “Oops, I dropped it.” Amelia bent down and made her hands into fists and opened them really fast. She was not focusing, so a different sandwich appeared in her hand.  Amelia gulped and sat up. She said, “Oh…. I love baloney, don’t you?”

But Amelia was thinking way differently than what she said.  “Oh baloney, I hate baloney–gross,” she thought.

“Oh dear,” stated Lilly with a grossed out face.  Her posse looked shocked.  “Hey, does anyone know where my baloney sandwich went?” asked a boy with sandy blond hair. 

“No, I don’t,” stated Amelia, “I just have my baloney sandwich.” 

After school, Amelia felt like she was going to throw up. She ran to her mom’s gray van and hopped in.  “Mom?” asked a queasy Amelia. 

“Yes Mea?” answered Mom. 

“Do you have a trash bag?”

“Yes, here you go.”  Mom said, “What do you need it for?” 

A few minutes later, Amelia’s mom looked very worried.  “Mea, I hope you’re not sick.”

“I accidentally teleported my sandwich and teleported back a baloney sandwich,” Amelia answered.  She stared at the ground in embarrassment. 

 “Okay,” Mom stated. 

It was a silent ride back home but one Amelia would never forget. 

Amelia plopped in bed that night and teleported some potato chips upstairs and she began eating.  She looked up funny animal videos on her computer, sometimes this cheered her up.  There were cats who were afraid of pickles and dogs chasing kids on sleds. 

But Amelia still felt sad.  Why did Lilly choose one girl to pick on and why was it her?  Amelia closed down her computer and teleported up her school bag.  She reached in and pulled out her homework folder.  Inside the folder there was a note that read, “Roses are red, violets are blue and I do not like you! –Lilly''

Amelia shuddered. Why did that girl pick on me so much?  How come the other girls don’t stand up for me? Amelia picked up her computer and opened it up.  She looked up Springfield Community middle School and logged in with her password.  Her password was 265RainbowKitten48. 

She looked up Lilly Peterson in the list of kids who went there. Her hair pulled into perfect curls and her frilly dress looked amazing! Her boots even yelled respect.  No wonder why everyone liked her, but why had Lilly chosen to hate her?  Amelia shut down the computer and plopped into bed.  

Amelia slipped into her seat next to the popular girl.  Lilly stuck her tongue out at her and Miss Landelmaid walked into the room with her usual smile.  “Let’s open our Bibles to chapter 8,”  Miss Landelmaid said.

Amelia turned to chapter 8 and began to read. Amelia loved this chapter.  It had 6 of Jesus’ many miracles.  Amelia had gotten to the story when Jesus calmed the storm.  Then Amelia felt something hit her head and her hand shot up and started rubbing it. She looked up. 

Lilly was smirking. Next to her sat a container of paper clips.  Lilly started reaching down for another paperclip. Amelia felt her face turn on fire.  She held up her hand and opened it fast.  Lilly’s paper clip container disappeared.  Amelia had teleported it into Lilly’s backpack.  Lilly’s hand hit an empty spot on her desk where the paperclips had once been. She looked confused.

Amelia looked down into her Bible.  How many more weeks of this could she endure? 

Amelia sat under a big maple tree in the school playground. She mostly sat under the maple tree during recess so she wouldn’t be noticed or called late-y. She glanced to the school house and saw one of Lilly’s posse members heading straight for her!

Amelia groaned.  What else did Lilly have to say to her? The girl had wavy brown hair pulled into a Dutch braid.

Amelia looked the girl straight in the eye and said, “Get it over with– what does Lilly say?”

The girl replied, “I just wanted to say…”

“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all,” Amelia interrupted.

“It’s just, I want to be your friend,” the girl stated.

“What?” Amelia exclaimed, “This has to be a joke.”

“Really,” the girl answered. 

 “But aren’t you friends with Lilly?” Amelia asked.

“I was,” responded the girl “but I don’t think she’s right after reading the Bible hero book.”

Amelia looked the girl in the eyes to see if she was telling the truth.  She did not see teasing eyes but strong and truthful ones.

On Friday, Amelia came running into school. She was bursting with excitement. She ran into room H with the biggest smile on her face. She ran right over to her B.F.F. Trixie Puller. “Trixie, guess what?”

“Your parents got kidnapped by rainbow racoons?” answered Trixie.

Amelia giggled. “Close.”

Amelia and Trixie had only known each other for a week but were already close. “What is it, Mea?” asked Trixie.

“My parents have agreed to have a sleepover today!” Amelia said with excitement.

“That’s awesome!” Trixie exclaimed.

“It is,” Amelia stated sadly.

“Why are you sad?” Trixie questioned.

“It's just I feel bad that Lilly is ignoring you now that I’m your friend,” Amelia replied.

“I’ll be fine,” Trixie replied. She gave Amelia a quick hug but then the bell rang. It was time for school.

 Lilly walked to the front of the room and turned around to face the class.

Miss Landelmaid said, “Lilly has something to say to us today.”

Lilly took a deep breath and said, “Today is my last day at this school. My parents have decided to move to Window Rock, Arizona.”

The class was silent for a few seconds.

Trixie and Amelia looked at each other and exchanged smiles. Amelia felt sad that Lilly was moving but at least she wouldn’t cause them problems anymore.

Towards the end of the school day, Amelia felt as free as a butterfly. “Amelia” a voice cried out.

Amelia looked up from her math quiz.

“Amelia,” Miss Landelmaid repeated, “Come here please.”

Amelia stood up and saw Lilly stick out her tongue at her.

Amelia ignored Lilly and knew that she would not be here long. Amelia walked to the front of the room. “What is it?”

Then Miss Landelmaid whispered, “I hope you don’t have trouble with your teleportation.”

Amelia froze. How could Miss Landelmaid have known? Even Trixie did not know yet. Amelia was about to ask when the bell rang and Trixie grabbed her and led her out.

Miss Landelmaid chuckled and thought, “I wonder if Amelia will ever figure out that I have the super power of reading people’s minds?”